FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCTDENT.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 167, 20 April 1871, Page 3

FRIGHTFUL RAILWAY ACCTDENT.

The " News of the World " gives the following account of a frightful railAvay accident, in which it is believed a portion of the last New Zealand mails Avere destroyed : —

Neav York, Feb. 7.

The train leaving New York at 8 o'clock last evening met an oil train on the New Hamburg drawbridge. The oil train jumped the track and broke in two, and an oil car tipped over on to the passengers train and set it on fire, and the locomotive and cars Avere all burnt up. Three sleeping cars are amongst those destroyed, and eighteen persons were killed outright, and many more are injured who will not recover. No names have yet been obtained.

SECOND DESPATCH.

New Hamburg, Feb. 7, 2 p.m. Nineteen bodies have been recovered, fourteen of whom are thought to be passengers, including three children and the five railroad employes, The search will be continued, although it was thought that all have been recovered.

The following particulars of the tei'rible railway accident on the Hudson Eiver Eailroad have been obtained from an eye-witness : —

The freight train which caused the accident consisted of about twenty-five cars, most of which carried tanks of oil. Before leaving Albany every car was carefully inspected by the workmen, and no defect was discovered. When the train reached the wooden drawbridge over Wapenger Creek. New Hamburg, a sudden shock passed through the entire train, almost throwing it from the track. Upon examination it was found that the axle of the tenth car had been broken. The car had then broken loose from its coupling, and careened on one side, striking against the framework of the bridge, and lay a total wreck upon the track. Almost at the same moment, and before a signal or note of warning could be raised, the express train which left this city at eight o'clock came rushing along at the rate of thirty miles an hour. The engine struck the wrecked car with terrible force, setting fire to the oil and scattering the inflammable and burning materials in all directions. The force of the collision instantly threw the engine over the bridge into the creek. The ice, though very thick, was unable to bear the locomotive, which broke thi*ough and sank. The render of the engine also fell into the creek, immediately behind the engine, with two baggage cars, which were instantly followed by a sleeping car full of passengers. The flames from the nil tank set fire to these cars, which, after striking the wreck, fell over into the creek a burning mass. It is said that some passengers in the burning car succeeded in leaping out in time to save themselves from death, but the rest were carried with the car over the bridge, and were either drowned or burned.

The dead body of Vosburgh, the conductor of the sleeping car, was afterwards found with his lower extremities burned away. As soon as the particulars of the disaster reached the city, Superintendent Toucy started for the scene, and has since been engaged with a large body of men, searching for the bodies of the unfortunate passengers. This morning the wreck was cleared away from the

sleeping car as it lay upon the ice. In one corner of the car the charred and blackened bodies were found, but Avere so disfigured that identification was impossible.

From the appearance of the bodies it is evident that the passengers at t!»e time of the accident hud rushed in despair to the rear door, and there miserably perished. Three bodies, apparently those of a mother and two children, of AA r hich the arms yet remained, Avere discovered closely embracing each other, as though finding egress impossible, they had resolved at least to die together. Besides this car, which Avas the Buffalo car, there Avere two other sleeping cars, Avhich were also totally destroyed by fire ; but the passengers, many of AA r hom were partly dressed, succeeded in saving their lives. Many of the cars of the freight train, together with the baggage they contained, were also burned. Mooney, a breakman, among the killed, was discharged from the road a month ago, and Avas reinstated about two weeks since, at the urgent request of his mother and neice. The explosion of the oil in the tank was heard at a great distance, and the flames from the wrecked cars f.nd burning bridge were seen many miles away. The bridge was a wooden one, about 200 feet long, and was totally destroyed.

Many persons from Poughkeepsie and New Hamburg, as soon as the news of the accident reached those places this morning, hurried to the scene, and by their efforts are succeeding in giving relief to many of the passengers who were injured. The baggage car was turned into a temporary morgue, and as fast as the mutilated bodies were removed from the wreck, they were transferred to the car, and a guard placed over them.

Many of the oldest conductors and engineers on the Hudson Eiver road unite in saying that the scene presented at the place of the disaster, this morning, was the most terrible ever witnessed.

The list of the killed now includes fifteen passengers and five railroad employes. Among the lulled was the Eev. Mr. Fowler, Avho Avas on his way to Salt Lake to take charge of a mission.